Kirk here with a follow-up regarding the Unification Church and Abe’s assassination. I’ll include a more direct connection to Kumamoto (my own encounter with the Moonies while living here) in this post but first I’ll start with the national context.

The Japanese article I’m linking to shows a lawyer named Hiroshi WATANABE, of the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales. This group of about 300 lawyers complained to Abe last year that the video message he sent to the group formerly known as the Unification Church (統一教会) lends credibility to them and thereby helps them continue to bilk people of their money. https://www.stopreikan.com/kogi_moshiire/shiryo_20210917.htm

A brief English-language account of the press conference can be found here:

Lawyers Rap Unification Church over Abe Shooter’s Family https://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2022071201114

Unfortunately, the English article doesn’t have much data. The Japanese is far better in that regard. In short, the Japanese article explains how the Moonies use religion to sell stuff. Mr. Watanabe claims that sales or loses to clients (I’m not exactly sure which or how this figure was calculated) amounted to about 330,000,000 yen last year alone (over 2 million US). Individuals are duped into buying as much as 30,000,000 yen worth of goods (over 200,000 US), he says.

An article in today’s Asahi Shimbun says that in the last 35 years, 34,537 complaints have been registered with Japan’s various local consumer centers (消費者センター) regarding losses to the group totaling about 123,700,000,000 yen (about 900 million U.S.).

A victim who participated in the lawyer’s press conference said that while she could never condone such a brutal murder, she understood the anger directed at Abe for supporting and praising the leadership of this group.

In this context, I cannot condone how the police and elements of the Japanese media have tried to present the assailant’s anger at Abe as mere confusion. Here’s how NHK quoted the police:

“The police see the motive as a one-sided delusion and are investigating when and why he changed his target (from the religious organization to Mr. Abe).”

警察当局は、一方的な思い込みから安倍元総理大臣を襲撃したとみて対象を変更した時期など詳しいいきさつを調べています。 https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20220711/k10013712111000.html

It would seem that the police and NHK are more interested in protecting the legacy of Mr. Abe than they are in protecting ordinary people from the Moonies.

Finally, I’d like to report my own experience here in Kumamoto. Perhaps a decade or so ago, a young women came to the door of our house soliciting donations for something. My recollection about what she said the project was is a bit fuzzy now but I clearly remember that, after I declined and she left, I Googled the name of the organization she said she was from and found a Wikipedia article saying that it was a group affiliated with (or a cover for) the Unification Church. Being the a–hole that I am, I tried to get in her face about this. When I found her, supported by a man (a handler?), at another house, I yelled out “統一教会です。気をつけてください！” (“It’s the Unification Church. Be careful!”). Again, being a natural a__hole, I stubbornly kept repeating my warning every few seconds or so. The handler (or whatever his role was) looked decidedly displeased with my activity but they finally got in a car and left the neighborhood. Good riddance.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/96b36f6cf3a6636b33be904b8f811078fac4ab5a